The
Rifleman
"Welcome to the McCain Ranch"End of the HuntEpisode 162

When I woke up to find Mark not in his bed, I dressed and went looking for
him. I didn’t have to look far – he was sitting at the kitchen table,
proudly shining his rifle. "What are you doing up in the middle of the
night?" I asked in a tired
voice.

"It's morning Pa...it's easy to be up doin' it if you’re not out
gallivanting around to all hours, " Mark answered me cheerfully.

"It's not every night there's a barn dance," I said. I asked Mark what time
it was. He said it was four o'clock. I wonder why he was up so early, even
at five o'clock it would take a good poke of the spur to get him up. I
poured myself a cup of coffee. “What makes you so bushy tailed today?” I
yawned.

“I’m just…cleaning my rifle.”

“Yeah, even from here, I can see you got too much oil on that sight. You’ll
get a glare.”

"Pa...you were out so late and all last night I didn't get a chance to tell
ya.”

"What?" I asked.

"Old Spike's back!"

"Who?"

"Old Spike, that eight point buck I was telling you about." I did remember
him. He usually turned up about this time every year. As I sat down, the
barrel of Mark’s rifle was pointed at me. I pushed it out of the way. That
always made me nervous!

"I saw a spore in the creek. Well, he really sunk in. I bet he dresses out
about one hundred and forty pounds!" You could hear the obsession in Marks
voice and see it in his expressions. I asked Mark if he was going to shoot
him with his .22. "Yep!" He said he figured he could get about 50...maybe 75
feet from old Spike.

“You think he’ll let you get that close?” I asked him.

“He’ll let me, alright!” Mark declared. “Year before last, I was tracking
him just for practice. Well he…doubled back on me, chased me up a tree. But
I didn’t have my rifle then. This year it’s gonna be different!“

I was so tired! I told Mark I was going back to bed. “Good luck with your
hunting.”

I started back toward the bedroom. Mark just kept talking. "For four years
now he's been coming strutting around in these hills...he looks down on me
and snorts...almost as if to say...go home kid...send your Pa out and I'll
take him on. That son-of-a-gun has been insulting me for too long!”

"Insulting you?" I asked.

"Just by being alive! He's just such a smart elic, he gets in my craw.
You've never seem him because he's afraid of you...he respects you! But this
year it's gonna be different! I've got my rifle now." I watched as Mark
aimed his rifle, feeling pretty sure of himself. "I'm going to get him in my
sights...line him up...pull the trigger...and he's gonna come down."

On that note, I went back to bed!

When I got up Mark had already
left to go hunting, so I thought I'd head into town. The first stop I made
was at Lou's. Lou was in the lobby of her hotel tending to her flowers. I
asked her if she was still upset with me for the night before. "And why
would I be angry with the likes of you?" Lou asked in a voice that told me
she was indeed upset with me.

“Well, you gave a good indication of it last night.”

"You must have danced with every girl there!" she exclaimed. I brushed off
her statement. She asked if I had breakfast. I told her I had just had
coffee – Mark had made it at four o'clock this morning. She was just as
surprised as I was. I told her he wanted to get his chores done so he could
go hunting. "Ah...the new rifle. Guess he wants to prove how good, he is.”

“Yeah, he’s trying to prove something alright.”

“By the way, if you haven’t seen the Marshal, it might be a good idea!” Lou
warned me. “He’s the one who’s upset!” I didn’t know why. “Don’t you
remember?”

“Oh, the bullfrog in his shirt last night?” Lou nodded. "I didn't do that
Lou - Nils did." She said that Micah's dignity has been ruffed so it would
be hard to convince Micah that I had nothing to do with it. I thought I'd
just take a walk over to Micah's office and needle him a bit about it.

I didn’t know it, but Micah was watching at the door, waiting for me to come
see him. He hurried inside. When I got there, he was in a cell hanging
something on the wall. “Well, good morning, Marshal,” I greeted him as I sat
my rifle down by the door. I told Micah it was quite a party last night. He
did seem a bit upset with me still. “You really that upset over an old
bullfrog? You should have seen yourself last night – hopping around like a
cat with his foot in a paper bag.

He was hanging something in the cell and asked if I would come and hold it
while he got a hammer. I went into the cell to oblige him when he locked the
cell door behind me. I was a little surprised. This was a little extreme.
“Well, you must really think I did it!” I thought this was part of the gag
for the bullfrog. "Is putting a bullfrog down a marshal's back a misdemeanor
or a felony?"

He said neither and he knew I didn't put the bullfrog down his shirt. He
then made a statement that totally surprised me and put an end to all the
joking – because his statement was no joking matter. "Reef Jackson’s was in
town!" I immediately lost my smile.

I walked up to the front of the cell and stared at Micah. "How do you know?"
I asked.

"I know and I know just how you feel about him," said Micah. "I've gotta
keep you here Lucas until I find Jackson and get him out of town."

"Give me those keys Micah!" Micah shook his head. I suddenly reached for the
keys through the cell bar, but Micah was too quick. He told me he was sorry
and walked away. Rage filled my body. “Micah, come back here!” I screamed
angrily. But he hurried out. I kept screaming for him to come back, but he
didn’t listen. He left, closing the door firmly behind him. You should have
seen the rage in my eyes!

I was angry! I picked up a stool and crashed it against the bars.

Meanwhile, Mark was riding, looking for his deer.

Like I said, I was really mad. I had to figure a way to get out of here.
Suddenly I heard Lou call to Micah. "Micah..Micah...did you and Lucas make…”
Lou stopped when she saw me in the cell. “Make up?" She thought it was funny
seeing me locked up in jail. "I can see that you didn't.” Lou walked over to
me. “Well I must say you’re not being a very good sport about it! After all
you and Nils had your fun last night..the least you can do is let Micah have
his today."

"Yeah!" I said angrily. Suddenly it dawned on me; this is my way out of
here. "Yeah, Lou...I guess you’re right. I have an idea how you and I can
switch this joke on Micah."

"How?"

"You get the keys for me out of his drawer and let me out. He'll have a fit
when he finds me gone,” I said. I tried to keep the joking alive, but it was
hard when I was so full of rage.
"I don't know if I should or not...the way you were dancing with those girls
last night." said Lou.

“Come on, Lou…” I half-laughed.

Lou turned and started over to Micah’s desk. I turned, hoping she’d fall for
my trick.

I told her to hurry with it. "Micah will never trust this jail again until
he finds out how you got out of here."

"That's the joke!" I said. With my tone and the way I was acting, Lou knew
there was something wrong. As I picked up my rifle, she asked me what was
wrong. But I ignored her question with one of my own. I asked her if anybody
had checked into her hotel this morning. She said no one had and mentioned
Micah had asked her the same thing. She asked me who I was looking for. I
told her to ask Micah as I left his office with my rifle in hand.

Nils was happy as he worked. He told me I was up early, considering what
time I got home last night. I didn’t have any time for joking and got right
down to the heart of the matter. I wanted to know if anyone rode into town
this morning. He got sarcastic with me and said we all rode in. “I mean
strangers, Nils!” Nils could tell I was looking for somebody special. “I’m
looking for Reef Jackson.”

He looked at me. “Oh, you had the same look of hate on your face the first
time you told me about him. What makes you think Reef’s in town?”

“I heard!”

“Lucas, I don’t blame you for what you’re planning to do, but if you go
through with it, you may regret it,” Nils warned. He told me to leave my
rifle with him until I cooled off.

“Did you see Jackson?” I asked in a controlled voice. He said no. I turned
and walked out.

Meanwhile, Mark was still out tracking Ol’ Spike. He came upon Spike’s
footprints and knew he was getting closer.

Micah was surprised to see I was gone when he got back to his office. He
went over to the hotel to see if Lou knew anything. He asked her if she had
seen me. She said she had when I first came into town. He asked her if she’d
seen me since then. She could tell Micah was worried. “Is something wrong?”
Lou still thought that we were joking over the bullfrog. This had nothing to
do with that. “Then why was Lucas in jail?”

“There’s a man named Reef Jackson in town,” Micah stated. “Lucas hates him
more than anybody in the whole world and with just cause. If he finds him
before I do, he’ll kill him in cold blood and I wouldn’t condemn him for it,
but uh…the jury might not feel the same way about it.”

Lou felt guilty. She admitted that she had seen me. In fact, she’d turned me
lose. Micah got mad and started to leave. She ran after him, trying to
explain that she thought it was just another joke. “It’s no joke, Lou!”
Micah agreed

He went to his office and Lou followed him. She saw Micah take a shotgun out
of the rack. She asked him what he was going to do with the shotgun. He said
he hoped nothing. He told Lou about an unsigned telegram that came addressed
to me last night. It stated that Reef would be here in North Fork today.
“I’m going to go look for Lucas. And I hope I don’t hear a rifle shot before
I find him.”

I rode out to Granny Mede's looking for Reef. Reef was Granny's nephew. I
knew them from when I lived in the Nations. Granny was sitting on the porch
knitting. When I approached the porch Granny said "Hello Lucas," never
looking up.

"Granny you can't even see the back side of your own spectacles, how did you
know it was me?"

"I can hear a fly cat walking across a swatch of velvet and tell whether
it's a bluebottle or a horse." She kept knitting. "My nephew ain't here.”

“What makes you think I’m looking for Reef?” She knew that was the only
reason why I ever stopped by. She said she hadn't see him. “I heard he was
in town.”

“That’s more than I heard.” She looked up at me. “You still fixin’ to kill
him?” I just looked at her. "Bloods thicker then beet juice Lucas. But I
don't hold with that boy! I don’t hold with you either." She remembered back
in Oklahoma Territory when the Devil was on both of us. One morning while we
were digging an irrigation ditch, he put down our shovels and started
fighting. Then we picked them up and went right back to working.

“I remember a different time.”

She went back to her knitting. “From what I hear, I can understand you
wanting to put Reef under. But I haven’t heard Reef’s side of the story yet.
For the past ten years, he’s been too busy running.”
If he had a side, why was he running? "Maybe he doesn't wanna hafta kill you
Lucas." I asked her if he would happen to be in the barn. She was upset
because I thought shemight be lying. “Like you said, Granny…Blood’s thicker
then beet juice.” She told me to go ahead and take a look.

I walked to the barn, prepared to fire if I found him. All was quiet when I
walked in, but then I heard a noise. The only thing that was in there was a
barn owl. "People like me…the less we have, the prouder we are at what we
got. I ain't got two quarters to rub together, but at least I always got
took at my word...up to now. Now I reckon I ain't got that neither."

"Granny my mistrust doesn't make you any less a fine woman...but when it
comes to Reef Jackson I wouldn't trust a preacher when he said Amen." I
asked her if she would let me know when Reef turned up. She just looked at
me. I slowly walked away and headed back into town.

I thought I'd check back at the hotel and see if anybody new has registered
yet. I rang the bell. Lou took a little too long to get there for my
satisfaction. I reached under the desk and grabbed the register. Lou told me
nobody new had registered, but I had to check for myself. I looked anyway.
Lou was upset because I didn't believe her. This Reef Jackson thing was
consuming me. I didn't trust no one, not even Lou or Micah, my best friends.
"Letting you out of jail was no joke...was it?"

"Did Micah laugh?" I asked.

"No!" said Lou.

"Then I guess it wasn't,” I answered angrily.

"Why do you have to kill Reef Jackson?"

Her question surprised me. I lifted my head and glared at her. "Did Micah
tell you that too?"

"Only that you had to, not why," said Lou.

I slammed the guestbook shut. "Alright Lou...I'll tell you why! Reef
Jackson, my best friend once shot me in the back, left me to die and tried
to steal my wife. That's right! He put a slug in my back and hatred in my
heart! You want the details? No I didn't think so!" Lou was shocked as I
turned and started to walk out of the hotel.

"Lucas McCain! You don't own yourself!" Her words stopped me. "You belong to
Mark...and maybe just a little to me. And I don't want to see you dead by
Reef Jackson's bullet or the end of a rope if you kill him!" Her voice
softened. "There's a saying in the old country...hate is like
lightening...blue, white and then it's bright red like fire, don't let it
consume you." I didn’t know what to say.

Just then a boy came to the door of the hotel. "Mr. McCain...Granny Mede
says it's time for you to come." I thanked him and turned to look at Lou. I
headed for Granny Med's place to face Reef.

By then it was dark. Granny Mede was still setting on the porch knitting. I
walked up to the porch and stood there. “He’s down in the barn. Got in about
a half hour ago.” I started to go. "Lucas...he told me his side of the
story."

I slowly walked toward the barn, switching my rifle back and forth from hand
to hand. The barn door was wide open. When I got there, I stood in the
doorway. Inside, I saw a man in the shadows smoking a cigar. I walked inside
and twirled my rifle. I aimed it at him, but didn’t say a word.

"Lucas...changed haven't ya' Lucas? The McCain I knew would have pulled that
trigger and been cleaning
the rifle by now. I heard you've been waitin' for this moment for years.
Well...here I am. Let's get at it." We stood there in the dark looking at
each other. I didn’t make a move to shoot him though. “I'll make it easy for
you as it was for me." He then turned and had his back towards me.
"Well.....aren't you gonna shoot?"

"I wouldn't shoot a pig in the back."

"No I guess you wouldn't. Lucas you may not believe this, but when Margaret
died I lost as much as you did. Except I never had her." That made me angry,
but I didn’t make a move. “Alright, you’ve been looking for me, you found
me. So let’s get the shooting over with before it’s too late, we wake up the
people.” I just stood there and stared at him. He yelled and told me to get
on with the shooting. But I didn't. “You want to get a better look? You want
to see what ten years of running and jumping at shadows will do?”

Suddenly, he came out of the shadows. I stared in shock at what I was
seeing. Before me I saw an aged, broken man. He was no longer the strong,
good-looking man I remembered. He was broken…aged…old…Killing him would not
benefit me a bit.

“Remember how I was, Lucas? Strong as you…ten pounds heavier and a year
younger. What’s happened to me? Why am I like this? And you’re still like
that? I’m not a man anymore!” He cried. “I’m just a barrel of pain and fear
and I want to die. You’ve got every reason in the world to use that rifle.”
Do it!” I just shook my head. I was in such shock at what I was looking at.
He got down on his hands and knees in front of me. “Lucas, you’ve gotta do
it!”

"I'm sorry Reef...I can't help you!" I turned and walked away.

As I walked away I could hear Reef crying as he called to me. "Lucas...Come
back, come back!"

I slowly walked back to the porch where Granny Mede sat. “You knew I
couldn't kill him, didn't you Granny?" She didn't answer me. She looked at
me silently, then she just continued knitting as I walked away. It was time
to go home. Finally all the torment was gone.

When I got home, Mark was setting by the fireplace with his thoughts
somewhere else. He held his rifle in his hand. He asked me if I was hungry,
but I just wanted to go to bed.

“That eight-point buck get away from you?" I asked.

"No, I found him.”

"Couldn't you get close enough?" I asked.

"I got within fifty feet of him," Mark answered.

"What happened...did you get nervous?"

"I was as steady as a rock.”

"Just what?" I asked.

"I just decided maybe I...I've been after him for too long. I wanted him
until I got close enough to get him...then I saw him up close...he wasn't
like I thought he would be...he was sorta raunchy
lookin' and patches of hair out of him. He saw me...he looked right at
me...but his eyes were sort of tired like...like as if he were trying to
say...you wanna win? Well then go ahead and shoot 'cause it means an awful
lot for you to win...and it means nothing to me to lose."

Wow! My son had just spoken my thoughts. It really made me stop and think.

"So you decided not to shoot him too," I said.

"I guess that doesn't make much sense to you...does it Pa?"

"It makes a lot of sense son, a whole lot!" This was the 'End of the Hunt'
for both Mark and I.

piddlin' stuff.....K.T. Stevens was in
five episodes ―Heller as Muriel Bechtol, she was married to that evil Andrew Bechtol
― The
Fourflusher as Molly Fenway, she was married to a sharecropper who entered
his colt in the horse race ― Face of Yesterday as Nancy Clay
was the wife of the man he killed in the Civil War ― Honest
Abe as Emma Lincoln, the sister to Able Lincoln who claims that
he's the Great Emancipator Molly Fenway in End of the Hunt as
Granny Mede, Reef Jackson was her nephew, Lucas knew them from when
he lived in the Nations.

Jeff Morrow played Reef Jackson. He was the man that Lucas wanted revenge on
for shooting him in the back, leaving him to die and tried to steal his wife, Margaret.

Patricia
Blair as Lou Mallory. Patricia was first introduced to The
Rifleman in Lou Mallory. She played a hot-tempered Irish lass who was a
razor-sharp businesswoman. She joined the cast in the
fifth and final season and appeared in seventeen episodes. Patricia replaced Joan Taylor who played Milly Scott
owner of The General Store.

John
C. Gilbert played the boy who came to tell Lucas that Granny Mede's kin was
at her place. John is the son of Herschel Burke Gilbert.
John Paul Music productions—Laurel RecordsHerschel Burke Gilbert's theme for
The Rifleman are among the most famous TV themes of all time.
Check out The Rifleman lyrics page —♫'s by HerschelThanks John for these lyrics!

Joe Higgins played Nils
Swenson. Is it Nils or is it Nels/Niles? What is his last name.....Swenson/Svenson
aka The
Blacksmith? Joe Higgins holds the record for playing Nils or was it
Niles or Nels? There were four episodes that Joe did not play Nils or was
it Niles or Nels?
He
played the bartender in Strange Town — Rafe the blacksmith in The Wyoming
Story part 2 — Short Rope for a Tall Man as Henry Schneider the
horse thief — Stopover as
Scotty the Stagecoach Driver.Stopover was the only episode to run one day over
schedule.

Harry Finley played Harvey. It sure sounds like Lou says Harry.....what say you? Maybe Lou called him by his real name by mistake. He was the one who Lou asked if he would watch over the hotel while she went out.

Tom Kennedy ― Death Never
Rides Alone as one of the townsmen at the saloon —
The Assailants as one of the townsmen — Gun Shy
as a the townsman/man getting off of the stage — The Decision as one
of the townsmen —
The
Executioner as the man reading the newspaper —
Day of Reckoning as a churchgoer — Guilty Conscience
as one of the townsmen —
Which Way'd They Go? as a barfly — Outlaw's Shoes
as one of the townsmen — The Challenge as one of the townsmen —
None So
Blind as one of the townsmen — A Young Man's Fancy as one of the
townsmen — End of the Hunt as one of the townsmen.You can see Tom in
The
Rifleman many times, probably more times then listed. He
always went unaccredited, but not here at the ranch.

Tom Smith - How many times has Tom Smith
been on The Rifleman? Is it 7 or 9? He was in The
Queue as a customer in the dining room Outlaw's Shoes
as a cowboy in town ― The Clarence Bibs Story as a cowboy
in town ― Millie's Brother as a card player ― The Long
Goodbye as a cowboy in town ― Suspicion as a cowboy in
town and he was in Squeeze Play which later they used stock
footage from Squeeze Play for Conflict and End
of the Hunt.

Frank Ellisappeared in two episodes ― End of the Hunt ―Short Rope for a Tall Man
as one of the townsmen.

George Sowards appeared in six
episodes ― The Sharpshooter as a barfly ― The Fourflusher as one of the townsmen ―
The Promoter as a boxing spectator ― The Clarence Bibs
Story as one of the townsmen ― The Queue as
one of the townsmen ― End of the Hunt as one of the townsmen
― Which Way'd They Go? as one of the townsmen.

How many cowboy's other then Lucas also cared for Margaret?There was Reef Jackson
in End of the Hunt— Tom Birch
in One Went to Denver and Lariat Jones
- Lariat.